If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is
open to everything. In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few.
—SHUNRYU SUZUKI 



Sacred Datura, along the Escalante River. 7.10.

Datura

I spotted this datura near the entrance of a small cave along the Escalante River. Flies were circling and biting me as I backpacked across the sandy terraces by the river, so the dark cave opening was inviting at mid-day: out of the beating sun. I stopped, had a lunch of dry bread and kipper snacks, and sat in the cool sand, admiring the grace of the datura quietly growing at the cave's edge. 7.10


An assortment of images from the Southwest on the design table. 6.10.

Utah-bound

Heading out soon to get in some mountain and desert time in southern Utah, as thunderstorms continue to roll through the Midwest daily (no break from the rains). Now, to fly into Las Vegas and get the hell out of there as soon as possible; to climb up to a few cliff edges with watercolor supplies, and water, and snacks, and sit for hours on end just watching. I'm craving just-watching time. Soon, a much-needed solo Southwest trip begins.

For those who have never been to southern Utah, go. For those who have been before, go again.

The dry, eroding, heaved-up, falling-down, beautiful, red-and-pink-and-salmon-and-pine-green land balances the manicured, often congested Midwest. It's been two years since we left the SW, and it's high time to return for two weeks of sun and rock; intense desert heat, cool breezes up in the mountains.

Another gray-blue storm's blowing in now, obscuring the sun, the 10th storm in 7 days...6.10


Pole bean growing through a suspended brick in the bean-pole tripod. 6.10.


The Frank Gehry nutmeg melon construction, just starting to see the growth. 6.10.


Eating peas. 6.10.

Garden!

Growth: You set the stage, make the compost, dig in the horse manure, plant the seeds, water, let the storm blow in more water, and just watch and see what happens. We're making constructions this summer, to grow melons and cucumbers and squash upward...and pole beans, of course, some of them moving through the brick weights we attached for decorative flourish. Early summer growth. 6.10









A few details/spreads from the book in progress. 6.10.

After a 6-mile run in Hardin Ridge, Paula cools down by "Studio 5." 4.10.


Flipped photo of Ampitheater Lake in the Tetons from a few years ago. 4.10.

Redesign & update

Top three to-dos this summer: 1) make a lot of new work—and finish the "first sketch" of the book-in-progress; 2) travel out West for at least four weeks—Bull Valley Gorge in the Escalante if we can make it; and 3) redesign this parent site with new CSS and new features. Plus, everything else that summer entails: gardening, trail-running, cooking out, watching thunderhead clouds building for a few hours as the wind picks up and the temperature drops, and then the threat of hail just vanishes in a few minutes...or the reverse, the sudden darkening of the sky, the small dry tree limbs falling down, the heavy rain that lasts for hours.

There's wonderful new student work to post, and also personal and client design projects—a lot to talk about.

But this is an open summer: I take every opportunity to not talk about work, about projects; take every opportunity to just do what wants/needs to be done for a short few months. A break.

We are traveling this June, then in August before teaching starts up...Wyoming or Vermont or upper Michigan. Two weeks in southern Utah, visiting old and new haunts, with plenty of art supplies and instant noodles along the way... Site update by the end of August. 6.10

"Number 5," video in progress. 12.09.

Works in progress: "Sonnet 73," W. Shakespeare; recited by M. Willett, from Poems for the People. 11.09. Click to view.

Sonnet 73

Shakespeare. Yes, Shakespeare. I spent most of a day on this experimental—that is, "in progress"—video. Working with a recitation of Shakespeare's "Sonnet 73" by M. Willett, who podcasts Poems for the People (reading used by permission), I sifted through video clips from my travels back and forth, from Indiana to Illinois in recent weeks—and this short video emerged. I'll switch out a few clips (too repetitive now, but I'm looking to use just a few clips for maximum effect). The pacing and mood seem appropriate: reflective, a sense of shifting into autumn and winter, with industrial, "grain-bin" punctuations. 11.09

"Ruin and Light" video in progress. Collaboration with Danielle Dubrasky, Tyagan Miller, Lee Byers. 10.09.








Views of the new Doudna Fine Arts Center on the Eastern Illinois campus during quiet moments on a rainy Friday morning. 10.09.


Design Symposium weekend at Eastern Illinois. Brian Priest conducting a workshop on ideation. 10.09.

Jump to collaborate for portfolio selections: a mix of interactive media and traditional print design, personal projects, and works in progress. Download a high-res PDF of professional, personal, and student work (63mb).

"Continental Divide," poetry in motion with Professor Danielle Dubrasky. 1.08.

Recent presentations/exhibitions/work

Time to update this list...6.10 (Site update at end of August)

Continental Divide Motion graphics adaptation of Professor Danielle Dubrasky's wonderful poetry; Braithwaite Gallery, February–March 2008; ECOllective, University of Mary Washington, April 2008; and with Professor Dubrasky's reading at the 2008 SUU Choral Reading

Write, Dance, Design: Cross Disciplinary Case Studies in Design Peer-reviewed presentation at AIGA Intent/Content conference, Nashville, Tennessee; June 2007

Counterform 2007 Juried exhibition of book works at the University of Utah, February–March 2007

Fiction, Poetry, Dance, and Graphic Design: Case Studies in Collaborative Interactive and Print Design Projects Multimedia presentation, 2007 Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities; Honolulu, Hawaii; January 2007

Please Do Not Discard Solo exhibition of graphic design, art, writing; Vincennes University, Indiana; January–February 2007

Creative Writing and Visual Exploration Visiting artist/designer lecture, Vincennes University, Indiana, 2007

Restless Boundaries Exhibition of graphic design, art, writing, at Bellevue University, Nebraska, October–November 2006; visiting artist/designer

Open Space Visiting artist/designer lecture, Bellevue University; October 2006



Archer by Jonathan Hoefler

Above, the light-italic "v" from the new typeface Archer by Jonathan Hoefler. Recently, I've been using Archer as one of three faces (Trade Gothic, Archer, and Sabon) in the design of the new magazine Imagine for the IU Foundation, and I have come to admire the typeface's beauty, versatility, and highly functional grace. Read a quick review of Archer at the site I Love Typography. 3.09








Imagine magazine spreads, IU Foundation. 3.09.




Imagine magazine, details; typeface: Archer by Jonathan Hoefler. 3.09.

Indiana University Cinema fundraising brochure. 1.09.


Poetry in the new Indianapolis airport on a beautiful sunny Sunday. 12.08.

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Flying into Charlotte, NC. 12.08.

"Family Tree," painting in progress. 4.09.

Pro-bono design

I've been working on a campaign logo for the local Habitat for Humanity. The campaign will be launched in the Spring. The idea of "giving back" is not a new one, but seems especially relevant during these uncertain economic times. Do what you can, when you can. 11.08

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Typographic de-construction, Stevie Smart. 4.08.




Book covers by SUU student Jessica McAllister. 4.08.


Working in the Omaha Printers Guild print shop near downtown Omaha. 10.06.

Making a mess in a stranger’s kitchen

There was the deep, somewhat forlorn sound of a horn blowing near the river while I worked on the outskirts of downtown Omaha. While a visiting artist in Nebraska, at Bellevue University, I had only a few hours to get familiar with the print shop and do some work. In the clean, unfamiliar shop, I fingered the dies and ornaments that had been acquired by the shop, dies from jobs that had been printed decades ago — and who knows where? To do some intuitive work in a brightly lit studio with high ceilings and an old paint-splattered radio playing local music — this is like entering into a stranger's home, going quickly through the drawers and cabinets and refrigerator in the kitchen, then tossing together a fine dinner without much thought, eating a wonderful meal at the glossy dining table, and cleaning up as quickly as you can on your way out. You carefully wipe away your fingerprints before you turn off all the lights and lock the door. 11.06

Commentary

"It seems that wherever Dave is, he becomes fascinated by nuggets of gold in the world around him: weathered metal signs and posters, worn landscapes, old fonts from old times ... His responses to the found things, images and moments encountered are typically poetic — both in words and images."
—Michael Giron, gallery director

From "Lake Ontario," a Flash movie created while a Visiting Artist at SUNY-Oswego. 2.06

Lake effect

For three nights I listened to the churn of the wind and the dark waves of Lake Ontario. Jet lag kept me wide-eyed and awake. Sleep stayed at arm's length.

Recently, as a visiting artist at SUNY-Oswego, I was given accommodations in a warm, well-lighted, sparsely furnished apartment that sat huddled on the edge of the wintry lake. Sleepless at 3 a.m., listening to the crashing waves, I pulled out my laptop and weaved together some Actionscript code, a haunting track by the Rachel's, and low-res video clips to create a short ambient piece, "Lake Ontario."

During the final day's lecture I presented the video as a work-in-progress. (It still is.) Days later, back in blue-sky Utah, weary from travel, I read an email from a student at Oswego. She said, "I left wanting to watch it over and over, there was something about the piece that moved me." Her email touched me. Thank you.

Insomnia on the edge of a wild lakeshore can fuel your creativity, the rough result of which can touch someone unexpectedly — if you let yourself step out of the comfortable warmth and stand shivering on the shore and listen to the wind. View "Lake Ontario." 2.06

"New! New! New! Please Do Not Discard #5," mixed media/digital summertime collage. 06

Summertime collages: “I wake . . . ”

I wake to birdsong at 5 a.m., then sleep until the sun slips over the mountains and lights the bedroom just so; or when Ani, the dog, comes tapping into the bedroom and announces the beginning of the day — always a little too early, it seems. I wake. As Annie Dillard writes in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: "We wake, if we wake at all, to mystery, to rumors of death, beauty, violence..." 6.06


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